Home FFL’s by the Numbers

Home Based FFL

Home FFL’s per State

We estimate 95% of our customers at FFL123.com apply for an FFL from a home or residential location. The home FFL has been the focus of our product from day one. The FFL application and approval process is the same for a commercial location, although you can just skip a few sections within our guides if you have a commercial location. To start from home makes the most sense from an economic standpoint: almost no startup costs and this gives the hobbyist time to explore all the options the license offers.

If you have read our Free Report, you know that I struggled personally to get a home based FFL License in the gun friendly state and gun friendly city of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. After following information I obtained online, I found I had a lot of wrong information and it was hard to back up and start over once the train left the station. My personal struggles gave me the insights and passion needed to create this website and the products we now offer. We have now helped many thousands of customers obtain their FFL from home in all 50 states and in several US Territories like Guam and Puerto Rico. We have over 50,000 customers that have used our services since 2005.

Even still, I get emails each day from potential customers asking if it is even possible to obtain a home based FFL (often called a kitchen table FFL). Many gun hobbyists think all home FFLs were eliminated many years ago; most people quote the Clinton administration as eliminating them or quote their local gun shop’s feedback as this is not a possibility to obtain from a residential address. We help customers every day overcome local obstacles to getting their home FFL, so of course we know a home FFL is a viable option. We have struggled with an effective way to show others this is possible. We needed hard data to share with gun hobbyists to make our case and to silence the critics.

One night I had an idea. I knew the ATF allows other FFL holders to download a full list of all FFL license holders from their real-time database. This ATF database is used for an FFL to check if another FFL holder’s license is still active. I also knew that when I ship a package through the US Postal Service they charge me more if the package is going to a home address versus a commercial / business address, so I knew the US Postal Service must have a database to tell them if an address is a home or business location. I did extensive research online and found SmartyStreets.com which has access to the US Postal Service database; the code I was looking for was the RDI code which labels an address as a residential or commercial location.

I took the ATF list of over 72,000 FFL holders and decided to remove the pawn shops (Type 02 FFL’s) from the list and came up with about 65,000 FFL holders for this extensive analysis. I then uploaded this new list to SmartyStreets.com database for analysis and I determined 63.9% of all FFL holders are located at residential addresses! This is the proof I was looking for to share with others.

Hopefully this data summary will put the urban legend to rest; you can and a majority of FFLs do have a residential location. The next biggest concern we get is that a potential customer worries about their home being open for inspection at any time if they have an FFL, this is clearly not true; we will work on a post for this issue next! If you are interested in obtaining an FFL License, we would be excited to assist you in this endeavor. I have poured my heart into this website, FFL123.com, for almost 10 years and I know you will find the product quality and support to be first class!